Leo Tolstoy

Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed.

Boredom: the desire for desires.

Spring is the time of plans and projects.

Every lie is a poison; there are no harmless lies. Only the truth is safe. Only the truth gives me consolation – it is the one unbreakable diamond.

Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them.

Sometimes she did not know what she feared, what she desired: whether she feared or desired what had been or what would be, and precisely what she desired, she did not know.

I suffer whenever I see that common sight of a parent or senior imposing his opinion and way of thinking and being on a young soul to which they are totally unfit. Cannot we let people be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way? You are trying to make that man another you. One’s enough.

More knowledge may be gained of a man’s real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral.

I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad.

Shallow people believe in luck and in circumstances; Strong people believe in cause and effect.

I hate a fellow whom pride, or cowardice, or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl; let him come out as I do, and bark.

There’s not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.

Why was the human race created? Or at least why wasn’t something creditable created in place of it? God had His opportunity. He could have made a reputation. But no, He must commit this grotesque folly – a lark which must have cost Him a regret or two when He came to think it over and observe effects.

A great man stands on God. A small man on a great man.

Burning logs can carry on quite a conversation! … Have you ever heard apple wood talking? It’s the most loquacious of all. You really can’t get a word in edgeways.

The dead should be judged like criminals, impartially, but they should be allowed the benefit of the doubt.

Every man will be a poet if he can; otherwise a philosopher or man of science. This proves the superiority of the poet.

The power of love, as the basis of a State, has never been tried.

Genius Borrows nobly.

We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes.

Passion is a sort of fever in the mind, which ever leaves us weaker than it found us.